


A Breath To Me Is A Year To You

by Sheanio



Category: Homestuck
Genre: And Dave is Death, In which Bro is Father Time, M/M, Shota, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2013-05-18
Packaged: 2017-11-22 22:27:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/615049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheanio/pseuds/Sheanio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John is a blip in the vast loop that is Time. A blip that can exist with the embodiment of Time itself when he creates little holes for his own enjoyment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Blip

Time is a loop. It is a giant loop that even if a human could see it for what it was it is so enormous that they could only see the flat plane that is their life. 

For one man, however, time is completely understood. It is as if a college student is reading a book to teach reading to a toddler when he accesses the inner machinations of the Time stream.

No one has joined him in this, for no one can see him. He likes it that way, simple, clean, he is able to do his job of keeping things as they should be. 

He has only one job: Lead each human to their final destination. Time is malleable it can change for each person, however their final hour is the same no matter what their choices are.

When the time comes he has and will lead everyone to Death’s gate. But there is one single blip. Where someone will be able to stay with him even when he pauses time as he is want to do on occasion. And he is curious about this blip; Curious enough to take a moment from his agelessness existence to visit this blip and witness his birth.

April thirteenth, nineteen-ninety seven, six hours and twelve minutes in the evening his blip is born.

He is curious about him, questioning exactly what this child will turn into as he grows up. Almost unbidden the child’s future comes to his mind and he glimpses at the man he will grow into, attractive for a human, but all too fleeting.

A human’s life is the same to him as if he’d taken a long sigh.

Still curious about this blip of his, he focused a moment and the world stopped turning. Everyone stopped moving, stopped breathing, paused in the middle, end, or in this case beginning, of their lives. 

His blip was still crying as the nurse was in the middle of wrapping the baby up, something he had never seen in all his time existing as the Father of Time, as these humans call him.

He unpaused time and allowed the nurse to get back to her momentary charge and moved on towards the next person whose time was up. 

Still though, a little blip of his own… He’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t going to keep an eye on him.

Long sigh or not, he should prove to be somewhat entertaining. Humans always are.

A year passes for those humans, its easy to tell that the child can see him whenever he pauses time and he will occasionally play with the one year old. In ways that aren’t really the best for a one year old to develop. 

Rule number 1 when dealing with babies: Never throw them off a building, little tykes can’t catch themselves properly.

Rule number 2 when dealing with babies: Never expect them to understand a word you are saying, they never do.

Even though he’d been surrounded by humans for as long as they’ve been around (and longer) and having an above-average understanding of the human psyche and societal norms - He’d never dealt with children. He put the child, John as his parents would call him, back in his high chair to go back to whatever it was they were doing before.

He didn’t see the child again for a few years. 

He knew humans aged quickly compared to him; though he didn’t recall ever being that young. Just being. It was still… weird, to say the least that his last memory of this child was of him not being able to speak properly, unable to walk, and an inability to eat solid food, to this new child. Still John, the blue eyes haven’t changed, but he was pudgier. He was walking, eating food, even talking in those incorrect sentences of children that don’t quite understand the language. 

Just correct enough to be understandable but still wrong.

He pauses time once more and gets the joy of dealing with a toddler with energy to burn and a curiosity as deep as a well.

He remembers why he doesn’t deal with toddlers.

John asks question after question, who he is, what he is, why is mommy and daddy still, could i run away now and never return and they’d never notice, could i play a mean prank on daddy, where are my Christmas presents, are you Santa.

The questions are endless. He finally gives in and answers one of the child’s questions. 

He’d never given himself a name before, no one had ever really spoken with him and he’s known among his colleagues as Time, but with this kid he could give himself any name.

Long sigh or not this sigh will remember him.

“Some call me Time. You can call me Bro.”

“Tha' name’s stupid you big dumbdumb.” kids are so rude, he remembers why he never dealt with kids. “I’m gonna call you…” 

John trailed off thinking of the proper name he should have since Bro was apparently a “stupid name”

That name was not stupid he’d seen brothers call each other that and they had a fun relationship filled with activities that they both seemed to enjoy.

Wait where’d the kid go. Apparently he forgot that he was supposed to be thinking up a name for Bro and instead moved back to whatever desert was on the table and grabbed a piece and began to eat.

“Kid I don’t think that would be the best idea.” He’s never spoken so much before in his life. Two sentences to the same person and he hadn't even regretted doing it.

“You aren't my mommy! My mommy’s right here!” He patted his mothers’ shoulder and then looked to Bro. “Why can’t mommy see you? I’m not allowed to talk to strangers.”

“…Oh I’m no stranger young one.” Bro could feel all the years he’s been alive, the centuries, the millennial, weigh down on his shoulders and face. “Your parents are well acquainted with me. In fact…” He glanced towards both his parents and sighed. “We’re going to be reacquainted once again.” He unpauses time and John gets in trouble for having his hand in the brownie tin and eating desert before dinner and his short time with Bro comes to an end. John would see more and more of Bro as he got older however. 

His little blip would be well looked after.

It's a sad day in the Egbert household. He found out that Egbert was John's last name some time ago after following the one whose time was almost up. It was sudden, which was good for her, sudden and quick; A bad cold turned sour due to a failing immune system and an already weak constitution. Painless. The best way to die. Her only regret was that she would be unable to see her son grow up, but C'est la vie. Nothing he could do about it save make the process as painless as possible.

It did not help at all that while he had time paused to inform Mrs. Egbert about her own demise, and that soon he'll be transferred off to Death himself later, John could see him. John could see him talking with his mother and then leading her out.

For some reason that made Bro far more upset than he ever had the right to be.

It also didn't help because while Mrs. Egbert couldn't hear him cry for her and struggle to get to her body, she could see him. She cried and begged, "5 more minutes with my little boy. I didn't even get to say good bye to him!" But he shook his head and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her on, her cries becoming louder and more harsh as his unrelenting strength pulled her along to meet with Death.

John won't understand. He's too young to understand what death is. And he'd almost guarantee that John will be upset with him.

His intuition proved true.

"What did you do with mommy?!" He shouted towards the embodiment of Time.

"Her time was up. I was needed to escort her to her next area of existence." Something Death once said to him rang loud in his ears at this time. Rare as it is since Death... While able to be serious when necessary preferred to have a more laid back business sense. He just needed it to Keep It Simple. A voice in his head that sounded as though it was coming from a smirking mouth added the final phrase: Stupid.

"...What?" John was in distress, he saw that his mother had wanted to be with him, but this man... This man who had been nothing but kind to him in his short memory, who made regular people seem boring because of how cool this man was, had taken his mother. Taken his mother even though she had wanted to be with him.

"I just.." It was too much for the five year old to bear. Too much, too soon, too fast. The five year old broke down crying. Crying and wailing and carrying on and no consolations from Bro would help.

He unpaused time and when his father asked him later what set that off again John answered "It was Bro... It was his fault." His father placed him into therapy, but John refused to attend because whenever he brought up that Bro took mommy away he was always told that Bro didn't exist. He was added into a child bereavement center, he used that as a way to draw his depictions of Bro. Needless to say his father quickly took him from there. He took John out of school for a week in an attempt to reconnect with his five year old that was convinced an invisible man with weird taste in shades had something to do with mommy's death which was nothing more than a sickness that became too bad too fast.

It always amused him when he saw what he looked like to John. He appeared different to everyone, the only people that have ever seen his true form are the other Immortals.

Though personally he'd grown fond of the anime shades, as some of the kids back at the bereavement center explained to John when he asked what they were. The explanation that his father had come up with was that his mothers' death had traumatized him to where he had to come up with an imaginary person to take the blame for it. A complete load of bull but whatever helped him sleep at night.

Bro had no idea that boys could get boners that young. Nor that they could figure out what to do with them either. It was almost like watching a car wreck, only without the hassle of dealing with getting all the souls together and the smell of burning flesh and metal and rubber. You just can't look away.

It should shame him, watching a young boy pleasure himself, young even by a human's standards. But it doesn't. The boy does it for pleasure, what is wrong with that? Life is short, it is a fragile thing and some humans need to take the time to realize that it is short and they aren't going to get that time back no matter how they pray.

It does, however, make him feel weird when he realizes he has a boner of his own to work around.

It also confused him slightly, he'd seen John have his orgasm but... Nothing came out. Was he impotent? Not that it actually mattered, still, nothing came out.

John is turning 11 tomorrow. He hasn't seen Bro since his mothers' death. He'll make himself known and hopefully John will be able to accept him again.


	2. Chapter 2

A party at the Egberts always meant desserts. Specifically cakes. Even if the occassion held no need or desire for a cake at least one was readily provided by Father Egbert himself. No one truly minded, seeing as they were supposedly delicious. 

And this time was no different.

A birthday party always requires cake. That was something he'd seen several thousand times. Hundreds of thousands if he was being completely honest with himself. He'd seen babies' birthdays, and children's birthdays, and adult birthdays, animal birthdays, and even elderly's birthdays.

Even a few where he'd had to escort the birthday person to Death.

John is turning eleven today, eleven years he lived on this earth and he is eleven years closer to his death. That should not sadden him as much as it should. Everyone dies. In the malleable force that is Time that is the one truth; Everyone will die. 

John is no different.

The human blows out his candles that his father had painstakingly placed onto the cake so as to not disturb the graphic of... A ghost of some sort. Poltergeist as the humans called them. Apparently John likes those, seeing as his favorite shirt has that screen printed onto it. He makes a mental note to get him something like it when the time comes for his part in John's birthday.

Presents are opened, banter is exchanged between a few of his friends, some presents from friends who lived far away in different sides of this country. Even one that lived on an island. Cake divided out in classic triangular cut (though if his father had really wanted to save cake for later he'd have cut it like a square.) and given to the kids and after that they all ran outside to play with presents, or run around screaming in some of the younger children's cases.

He had other things to do, Time waits for no man. He'll come back later tonight to meet with him again and hopefully take him on an adventure. (and by "adventure" he meant taking John to a toy store and letting him pick something he wanted.)

It was later.

John was in his bed in pajamas and his Father had started getting ready for bed when he appeared in John's room. A mild amount of focus and a whispered "Hello" and John had bolted up and almost completely out of bed. He looked a bit confused when he looked upon his old friend from years ago but recognition quickly appeared on his face. "Bro!"

"I thought you said that name was stupid."

"Yeah and it still is. But it fits you, sorta." John had a better grasp of language now, though that really came as no surprise to him; Six years was a long time for humans and a lot can happen in that time.

He saw it happen so often.

John looked like he wanted to say something and with that twisted-look-away-bite-lip body language he could tell it was something somewhat important. "Where'd you go all these years..?"

"Here and there. Where ever I'm needed." The answer came readily, it's the truth after all. He's been everywhere, seen everything, since before the dawn of Mankind. John was quiet for a bit before smiling and looking back up to him. "I bet you were doing loads of cool shit!"

"Watch your language." Kids these days, cursing up a stormas young as they can. It never changes with each generation.

"You sound just like my dad." He proceeded to stick his tongue out like the mature child he is, got up and hugged his old friend around the shoulders. Or as far as he could get with how he appears to John. 

"I'm not entirely sure if that is a good thing."

"It means you're old" And that tongue gets stuck out again. He almost wanted to poke it back into his mouth, like how some people find it fun to do with cats.

"I'm older than you know."

"Yeah you look as old as my dad!" To be fair, to a child being as old as a parent is something ancient.

"You will know what I mean in due time." he's still too young to fully understand. He scrunched up his face in a put out manner and punched Bro in the arm. 

"No fair! Keeping secrets from me!"

"I'm only keeping this one because you won't fully understand it."

"Just like I didn't fully understand mom dying, right?" That stinged and he had no idea why.

"...You will in a few years. In the mean time," He will never stop laughing at all the Time jokes he can make in a single line. "how about you and I go out for a little after-hours party? Nothin' fancy, just a bit of fun." He winked to the child. "And if you're lucky we'll stop by the toy store on the way back."

".....Do you mean we might steal?"

"Not at all, I mean we'll simply purchase the toy with no one looking." It didn't look that hard to jimmy a lock open and stickin some cash for a toy. John looked suspicious but that lasted all of five minutes. He bounced up and down, clinging to your back cheering for his friend returned from who-knows-where. 

"Okay then!" John was too trusting. But why did that come to him? John had nothing to fear from Bro, save for his inevitable passing. He was halfway through changing when John froze for a moment and turned to him. "Hey... Can anybody see me while you're here?"

"No."

"No pants it is!" John proceeded to throw off his pants and run around his room in boxers. 

"It will still be cold, however. Temperature doesn't change just because I freeze time." The child looked downcast at that and sulkingly put his pants back on and faced Bro once more. 

"Alright I'm ready." That little pout was adorable. 

"Hold on tight then." He offered his hand to his charge who then grasped it almost questioningly but then with greater force. The look on his face when he did was indecipherable. Seconds and a single woosh later they were standing in a park, the swings in mid rustle from the wind, leaves frozen in place as they tumbled along the ground. People in coats rushing home for their beds or arm in arm with their significant other. Doors halfway shut with people waving goodbye to those inside stepping halfway down to the side walk, and his little blip looking around in awe at the frozen scenery.

"It's like.. like those things i see in books!"

"Pictures?"

"Paintings you silly face." John scoffed at this obviously uncultured pathetic excuse for a person and started for the jungle gym. He became almost like a monkey, climbing all over it and laughing as he hung upside down from the top of it. 

"I'm king of the jungle gym!" He shouted from his position there.

"Indeed, young one." Bro agreed and waved him down. "Now come along, I wanted to get you a toy or something, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" John had forgotten that part of it to be sure, but he wasn't about to again. After a moments scrambling and a slightly terrifying jump from one of the upper parts of the contraption he was back on the ground. He placed a hand around John's shoulders in an effort to make sure he was fine. 

His charge or not he wasn't going to have him injured over something so silly as jumping off a jungle gym.

That throw had been enough of a scare for him.

They walked the rest of the way to the toy store and caught it just before they officially closed and John vanished from his sight. His only clue as to where the boy had run off to was the occassional whoop of joy or shout of how cool something was and once an actual question asked from him while he was near the back looking at some sort of action figures of super heroes "So you'll get me anything?"

"Within reason. Don't need your father asking too many questions about me."

"...Yeah." He quiets after a moment and Bro wonders just how much he's missed in those few years of this child's life he wasn't there for. "I'll take this one!" John interrupts his thoughts by showing him one of those action figures he was looking at before and jiggling the box. "This one!"It takes nothing of his powers to produce the illusion of money and place it into the register. He and John took a step outside of the store and they were back in John's room.The child was quiet as he sat on his bed and you were about to start time back up before he looked up at his friend. "Bro... Can I ask you something?"

"Of course. I'll do my best to answer."

"Are you real?" Now of all the questions he was expecting that didn't even make the list.

"That's... a difficult question to answer." He sat beside John on his bed, the boy making an almost startled movement as the bed shifted to accomodate Bro. "I am real in that I exist and am an entity. You know I can stop time, correct?"

"Yeah?"

"I am Time itself."

"...I'm confused."

"Most people are, do not worry." A cough to clear his throat. "At the same time, I am not real because no one sees me, people do not acknowledge me as a being because I am a force." He could tell that he was losing the child and sighed. "This is what I meant by you understanding when you're older."

John was silent and turned his gaze back to the box. It was carefully placed to one side of him and he looks up to Bro with determined eyes. The child climbs into his lap and hugged him tight."I missed you Bro." The words were muttered into whatever material made the shirt he was wearing John had imagined up.

"...I missed you too, kid." And that wasn't a lie. Mostly. What had been years for this kid had been a blink to Bro. He barely noticed the time passing in the mortal plane. Barely noticed and it had his whole attention at any given moment. He knew what was about to happen. 

John looks up, not with tears in his eyes, not for his strong little blip, and sits up onto his knees. "People kept telling me you weren't real. I... I almost believed them. But I know you aren't!" Bro could see what going to happen in mere seconds. Johns lips were cold from the outdoors, warming up against his own quickly. The kiss was clumsy, this child didn't know how to kiss properly and it was more adorable than seducing that he was more than likely trying to go for.

"...I am real. Just because you can't see me, doesn't mean I am not there." Bro brought up a hand and carded it through John's hair, chuckling at the little gasp that he made in surprise.

He could only guess at what John was thinking.

"Goodnight, John." Things had to be done, people to escort to Death, others to bring into life, keeping the passage of time stable, and he'd spent long enough with this child. A relaxing of the mind and John who was just moments before grasping around the solid and thick form of a grown man fell onto his nose on the bed. He looked around in a panic before his eyes came to the toy Bro had gotten him and a smile pulled the corners of his mouth up in a smile.

He _was_ real.


	3. Chapter 3

Years have a way of vanishing, of getting faster and faster until a decade could pass by in the blink of an eye, the time Bro had spent with John had somehow managed to slow that feeling of passing time from a hyperactive squirrel hyped up on drugs driving a sports car fueled by nitroglycerin to what normal people would consider a fast period of time. His grasp on that reel had stayed as steady as ever yet even though to Bro John shot up like a weed as the years passed. Soon almost ten years had gone by since that night John kissed him.

He'd kept that crush.

He had acquired a new sense of sexual confidence, growing more and more bold with Bro as he grew up; Moving from shy kisses on the cheek stolen when attention on the human had wan to taking those kisses along with attempts at moving towards adult situations. 

To be fair to John Bro had appreciated and often reciprocated those kisses they shared.

As John grew so did his curiosity with his world, often he'd ask Bro questions late into the night (or so it felt, although no time had passed) about the immortals that keep this world spinning.

He had asked if God and the Angels are real.

Bro answered with "If you believe in God and His angels then they are indeed real."

"So if I believe in nothing...?"

"Then there is nothing."

"That's... A bit frightening."

"You can understand, then, why religion exists." Occassionally some nights there was some level of teaching towards understanding the bigger part of the Universe.

"To... Comfort?"

"You could put it like that."

"But then what about heaven and hell?"

"If you believe in those things then you will go to where your heart believes it belongs."

"Huh..." John quieted a moment before grinning and rolling onto his side. "You know... Tomorrow's my 18th birthday."

"I am aware." As if you'd forget his birthday; April thirteenth nineteen-nintey seven at twelve minutes past six in the evening, it has been 18 years since that time. How it crawled.

"Whatcha gonna get me?" The impish grin on his face spoke of whispered breaths and dark undertones.

"Whatever it is you desire." 

"Anything?" He drew out the beginning vowel which you are certain is the influence of one of his online friends. Virus or something (John had made it a point to ask him not to invade the privacy of those he spoke to online and get a look at their lives, Bro considers it to be dangerous but he wasn't about to make him upset.)

"Anything you want."

"I know what I want!" Again with the long vowels, he will have to inform John of how immature that makes him sound later.

"And what would that be?"

"No! I will show you what I want tomorrow." He wriggled his eyebrows in what Bro is sure John thinks is a sexy thing to do. "Unless you want it now?"

"The offer is tempting but you have been awake now for over ten hours with me, it is time you slept.

"But I don't feel tired!"

"I've told you why that is before." Even though the pocket of time that Bro has him in essentially freezes his body the fact is he's spent ten hours awake, his brain will have gone through ten hours of interaction and absorbing information and once that pocket is gone that knowledge will hit him like a force and knock him out cold. It has occured to Bro before that you could keep John alive indeffinetely in these pockets, however that would be worse. 

By the time he dropped the pocket to do his job John would have dropped dead from starvation, dehydration, and lack of sleep.

He disappeared to John as he set time back on its course and just as he figured John dropped onto his pillow fast asleep.

But enough of that; Bro has a job to do.

The next day shows itself as he finishes pulling another soul from its body and running it through the normal lines he gave to each one as he got them. (Finally he was getting to the souls of this century, that Black Plague had put him so far behind schedule; It was ridiculous the amount of people that died because they simply didn't bathe properly.) By the time he gets back to John his 18th birthday party is almost over, the party's a small one, John, his father, a few friends from school, Bro would guess. He hung back and looked at their timelines, save for John (that is one death Bro doesn't want to know about) and his father, and all of them live long healthy (for the most part, one of them is going to get a cancer of some sort but them's the breaks) lives.

The party finishes and John and John's father are cleaning up from the dinner and cake and presents, his friends have left some time ago (He's glad they didn't stay over) and things are winding down. Bro waits for John in his room, leaving the pair of them downstairs to finish. His room hasn't changed much in all the years he has been here, matured in some ways; The childish posters are gone, in their wake he has other movie posters (all equally as terrible as his other friend with the shouty grey text is very inclined to point out with extremely colorful vocabulary. For a while there you were sure they had mutual crushes on the other but both said nothing about it) and his programming books that he was slowly getting better at. Bro could remember his first code, it had nearly completely destroyed his computer and he was very lucky that his father was as savant as he is with technology.

John chose that moment to enter and flop on his bed, murmur something about too much cake and roll onto his back, and stare at his ceiling for a while before sitting up and going to his computer and logging in to see the scrolls of multi-colored text wishing him happy birthday and what appears to be a poorly constructed rap from his other friend in a seperate window. He chuckles at his caring friends before turning to where Bro was standing and walked straight through him to get to the closet and pull out... Condoms and lube.

Bro can't say he's surprised.

He grinned and put them beside his bed and sat back down on it, looking around as though he could maybe possibly see his friend before he froze time around him. Poor child. Legal or not, Bro had other plans for tonight.

A blink and the time on John's digital clock stalled to a halt, a single bird outside stopped halfway through its song, and he was visible to the boy. "Happy birthday, John."

"Thanks! Uh.." The grin that lit up his face faded ever so slightly as he turned pink. "How... How long have you been standing there...?"

"Long enough."

"Oh... So then you saw...?"

"Ribbed- For her enjoyment." He defintely enjoyed seeing Johns' face turn scarlet. "However that's not what we're doing tonight." The boy puzzled this over for a moment before asking what it was then, that was going to happen. "We're going to see the world. Bro grasped his shoulder and a pop in Johns ears later they were in a rather large town remiscent of the french culture.

"Wai- Woah!" John doubled over heaving but thankfully he hadn't actually vomited. He hadn't considered what this would do to a human body.

Interesting.

"I..Wasn't expecting that."

"I can tell."

"Oh fuck you."

"Language."

"I'm an adult!"

"Barely even by human standards, to me you are still nothing more than an infant." John narrowed his eyes to Bro, muttered something and turned around. Seconds later he realizes that what he said had hurt John. "...What I said was true." Oh very great, he could see the boy grow even colder towards him. "However I should not have blurted it out like that."

"Yeah you dumbdumb."

"...I am very much a dumbdumb." John must not have been expecting it, for he doubled over once again and for a moment Bro was certain he was actually about to throw up this time were it not for the peals of laughter coming from him.

"Yeah... Whatever, where are we anyway?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I thought I'd take you somewhere for your birthday."

"Or, you know..." John's voice diminished as he spoke. "We could have had sex..." He was silent for a moment before speaking again, completely sidestepping that comment.

"Where would you like to go? We have several hours before your mind becomes exhausted." John looked around at everything that he could see and pointed towards a restaurant. "But you've already had dinner."

"Nothin' wrong with a little more, its not like I'll be stuffing myself. Just a taste." Bro nodded and followed alongside 

John, answering questions about the area that he had, about the food, about the bridge. One thing hasn't changed from when he was a toddler, that's for sure. 

John got his taste of food and almost cried due to the bite he took having a rather high amount of hot sauce and tobasco sauce added to its already spicy flavor. He complained a moment longer before pulling Bro out with him to go to the more touristy areas to walk and talk.The pair of them had gone down their second block when John stopped abruptly and turned to face his friend. "Do you not want to have sex with me?" The question is as abupt and surprising to the both of them, John seemingly more surprised that he managed to say it and Bro more along the vein of I-can't-believe-he-just-asked-that.

"That...Was a very surprising question. I wasn't expecting it." That was an understatement.

"You didn't want to when I offered back in my room. Do you just not want to? You know of my feelings to you and... And unless you've been lying to me all these years I know you feel the same way so...?"

Bro was silent a moment longer before taking John's cheek in his hand, feeling the youth lean into his touch with the soft prickles of a beard trying to grow in. He stared into John's eyes with an intensity that caused him to look away but Bro didn't waver in his gaze. "John I have never lied to you." His voice came out deeper than he had meant it to and John could tell. "I will never lie to you." He leaned in towards the younger man, whom had his lips quivering for a kiss he was sure was coming. Bro hesitated centimeters from his lips to speak against them, Johns breaths coming out in shallow puffs. 

"Never." 

John closed the distance between their mouths and for a slow moment the kiss didn't escalate. It lingered and lingered and by the time John broke the kiss he was surprised that he had been left breathless by it. "I'm simply not interested in sex. It is nothing to do with my attraction to you." John dumbly nodded and licked those lips of his again, glancing down to Bro's then flicking his eyes back to match the ones behind the shades (John knew they were an odd color but he wasn't sure what).

"I... Sh-should get back home..." Again with his gaze moving down to his lips.

"A wise idea, John." Another pop and woosh and the pair of them were standing back in John's room. This time John hadn't doubled over with dry heaves, a plus.

"Thank you, by the way... For taking me out."

"It was my pleasure." Time moved again, he could feel it tick in his body as John blinked, unseeing of his friend who still stood a mere foot before him and sat on the bed.

He was gone before John had fell back onto it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the long wait, this chapter was refusing to be written for the longest time. Which is also partially why it's short.

John grew up with Bro, some of the immortals had started calling him that nickname after word got out about his little blip, hovering over his shoulder. Like some demented form of Angel that the humans said were watching over them. 

Whatever helps them sleep at night, he guessed. 

He did his job as he had for an unknown age, collecting spirits caught in limbo when it was their time to get reprocessed through the system with Death, even though he had a strange human that could see him when he so chose (No matter how long that human would live it was something weird and new each time, he sprouted up faster than Bro could blink, but that was just what mortality was to him.) and it wasn't hard to get caught up in his work.

So caught up he almost missed a small alarm go off in the back of his mind telling him something was wrong with the lifelines of an immortal.

An immortal having a lifeline is something that never happens without there being something very wrong. It's unheard of for a lifeline to exist for one of them.  
He was behind schedule anyway, what's a few more spirits floating in limbo, ain't like they're going anywhere. Bro popped, literally popped if anyone could have heard him travel they would have heard something akin to bubble wrap bursting, over a dimension into the realm of those like him. 

He was nothing and everything, a mass of energy floating in the aether. The other immortals were with him, their essences, rather, they had somewhat corporeal forms in whatever dimension they were in but this was the fastest way to find someone. 

As far as Bro knew none of the immortals had expressed a wish to become mortal, such a thing had never happened before, once immortal very few had ever expressed anything even close to regret of leaving behind their life. So who was it that wanted out? 

After a bit of searching and asking around for specifics on the entity he was looking for (He's the Master of Time, Time very rarely includes creatures that don't flow within it as those on the material plane of existence do) Bro discovered that the entity with the lifeline was one of the Gods of Wind. Each dimension had its own diety since each dimension had people that believed in one, and this particular God is the caretaker of the Winds in John's dimension. Well that's lucky. Wouldn't have to do much in the way of inter-dimensional travel.

Another pop and Bro was with the God, somewhere on earth, who looked like he'd been expecting company.

"Am I dead yet?" His voice was breathy, as though he was like the humans after a long run but without the panting. 

"No."

"Shame."

"Why the sudden morbid turn?"

"I am bored. Bored and tired." His voice turned from breathy to something more powerful and he could feel the currents of wind being channeled through him. "I have been God for an absurd amount of time."

"So have we all."

"That may be but I am sick of it. I want to cease."

"But you're the God of Wind, people will still believe in you so you will continue to live."

"I am Tired." The capitalization of that word was something he could hear. "It is exhausting, and something that was once enjoyable but no longer. I wish to be mortal."

A silence fell between the pair as Bro tried to think of a way to appease the God for now. The Wind God stared into nothing, hands behind his back and just as drawn into his thoughts as Bro was. "...I'll talk to Death. He's been around far longer than us." For as long as there have been mortals, there has been death. That is one of the very few facts that exist.

"But what about you? You've been around just as long, if not longer." That is also true.

It took him a moment to think of a way to respond to that. "We are opposite sides to the same coin, as the humans say. Where one exists the other does. We cannot be without the other. As such we work best in tandem. We will talk about this, he might have some other ideas that I can't think of." The God nodded.

"Alright then, Bro." He used the name with a smile, that's good. "I'll expect word from you soon."

"Of course." And he left. There was nothing more to talk about with him, he was not about to reach the end of his time (which was rapidly approaching and that worried Bro) and there were things to do.

Like finding Death.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was meant to be porn in this chapter. And then my brain said "No". I'm sorry.

The days had become monotonous for John. He'd graduated high school in the upper ranks of his class, went on to a nice college to get a rounded education and then went on to get certified in computer hardware. He dabbled in some theoretical computing processes such as trying to make a truly random number generator for computers to run, on normal computers they had an algorithm that grabbed numbers from the system's internal clock so while the numbers were "random" based on the times the algorithm used was not so once the algorithm was cracked it would be nothing to cheat the system, and he occasionally tried his hand at programming, even though he more often than not ends up screwing his virtual box so badly he has to scrap it and make a new one.

He wakes up at 7 in the morning sharp, as he had for the last few years since moving out of his dads' place and each day seemed a bit harder to get out of bed. Not that he was depressed, he certainly wasn't, quite the opposite in fact. He was bored. Growing up with an immortal by his side had given him a look at life that made everything humanity did was short sighted, petty, none of it would last so why bother. Of course once Bro found out about this outlook he had a long sit down with John to have a talk about why even though humanity was short lived and therefore thought like that, that didn't make what they do any less important. He couldn't look at the world through the eyes of an immortal, for he was not immortal.

Whenever John thought of that conversation he could almost feel a clock within him ticking oh so slightly, getting closer to when Bro would come to take him to Death. That thought didn't scare him though, he'd seen enough of what Bro does to know that death isn't scary. It is the natural process any creature that lives on this plane of existence goes through, the material body cannot last forever so when it degenerates to the point where it can no longer survive whatever makes that person themselves goes to Death who then directs it around, sometimes they disappear, other times they go to Heaven, sometimes they get reincarnated. Bro said that it really just depends on what that individual believes in.

Life is boring. John wants to settle down. Or at least leave somewhere and just live. Just get up, pack a suitcase, maybe take his laptop, and go somewhere. Hitchhike down to the coast or go on a road trip. Take a plane to somewhere like in Europe, or Russia, or Japan. Just somewhere new. But he can't do that. His father would worry and John doesn't want him to go through that. 

So he gets up, swings his feet over the side of the bed and slips into the bunny slippers he put out the night before when he swung his legs into bed to sleep. Shuffles his way to the bathroom to run his fingers through his hair, comb it down, put on his glasses. He changes into some more normal clothes, since he's going off site to do a local job wiring for a neighbor hood to get internet access (The nice ones that could afford all this fiber optic cable), and grabs breakfast and a lunchbox he packed the night before because he knew he'd be out there for a while. 

John drove to the site, greeted by another of his coworkers that was assigned this job as well, there were five of them total. John would get the first three houses, Daniel the second three, Roxane would take care of the first three on the other side of the street, Jade got the second three. Janine would take care of the central hub switch (Bus in this case if John remembered right) to make sure they all made proper connections and that they had enough IP addresses to go around. It shouldn't take too long, John thought aloud as Roxane drove up in a pepto bismol pink Cadillac (apparently her mother was one of those door to door makeup sales ladies and was given this as gift for her excellent sales which she promptly gave to her daughter) She waved and started chatting with Daniel. 

He was sure those two would end up getting together in some fashion. Though to be fair she and Janine seemed close, so who knows. John looked back over the houses they were going to work on and went to talk business with the other two. "So the houses are all wired, right?" 

"Yeah," Roxane answered. John was still certain she came from like, Boston or somewhere on the east coast. "Got these houses so electrified eels be mad jealous." She giggled and Daniel followed suit. "Nah but all we have to do is set up the switch and bus here and get the Ethernet cables run through for these guys."

"Sounds fun."

"Oh totes fun." She grinned which turned into a full blown smile as Janine and Jade finally showed up. The trio hung around for a bit before John clapped his hands together to signal work was starting. 

"10 AM and the houses still needed to be configured," he said with a smile. "Lets get to work. Janine, you set up your stuff, Daniel, help me get this cable out." He started for the truck Daniel drove up in as Janine got her tools out to make more cables for the residents themselves.

They finished wiring the last house and setting up a small pool of addresses for the block just after one in the afternoon, Janine came in to help Roxane out with her three houses (even though Roxane is someone who could probably have done this entire neighborhood by herself), and all had their stuff packed up to leave by two, they still had to do their reports, however, and schedule another guy to come by and check and make sure that even though they had five people out there doing this they had done their job properly. As they walked back into their office they were chatting about what their plans were for the night, Jade was going to sleep and Roxane had convinced Janine and Daniel to go bar hopping with her. She'd invited John but he declined, opting for a more quiet night at home with a book or his laptop. She laughed and called him an old man.When all was said and done they were finished by 5 and said their goodbyes and parted to where ever it was they were going.

John opened the door to his home and wondered, not for the first time, if Bro was around and if he should pull an "I Love Lucy" moment.

"Honey I'm home!" The urge was too great to resist and he didn't regret that momentary embarrassment because that was funny and he was fairly sure if Bro was around he'd have appreciated it as well. After getting comfortable again and with dinner reheating in the microwave (lasagna from last night, always better the second night of course) John sat down at the kitchen island with his laptop and opened it up to some youtube video of a guy doing a Lets Play of some new game that came out that he would never get but was curious about anyway. 

Then the video stopped playing. It wasn't buffering, the little spinning thing that you could play Snake on (John had a good 10 minutes worth of fun when he discovered that) wasn't there, and even the microwave had stopped, frozen on 2:26. "Hello, John." Bro's gravelly voice appeared beside him. John jumped, still startled by him no matter how often he comes over. 

"Hey, Bro." The smile on his face came automatically, the distant memory of a large man asking to be called Bro getting called up to see if he still matches the person in front of him.

He remembered Bro being bigger than this.

"What's up?" Might as well chat or something since he cant eat his food at the moment.

"..." Oh dear, John knew that face. It was a 'Serious shit happened' face. Like when that war over in the Middle East happened. "It's nothing, John."

"Bullshit, I know that face." That is the face of a liar! "Something's wrong, now spill."

"It is nothing because there is nothing you can do, it is a matter for the Immortals."

"I could still be an ear for you to voice your thoughts at?"

"And have you interject every other sentence with your own thoughts? Right now I need to keep mine straight."

"That bad huh?"

"It's a lot easier for mortals." Well whatever John had been expecting it wasn't that. "Immortality isn't everything that your fiction says it is."

"Oh I know that," John answered.

"And here you are responding to my thoughts every other sentence."

"Well you do know everything before it happens." John chuckled.

"...Yes. Yes I do." The frown was back and John, for the life of him couldn't figure out why.

"What's wrong, Bro?" His hand rose to cup Bro's cheek, slightly gristly from stubble and a good amount of side burn.

"Things I can't tell you about." He sighed and leaned into John's touch. "...At least right now." 

The human sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get any more information out of Bro at this rate. Time to change the subject. "...Bro you told me once that your appearance changes depending on who sees you?" John simply got a grunt of affirmation. "What do you really look like?"

"If I were to show you your eyeballs would explode." John giggled at the mental image that gave him. "You wouldn't be laughing if you had eyeball juice dripping down your face."

"Yeah but you wouldn't let that happen either." John stuck his tongue out at him with another chuckle. They fell into an easy silence, though Bro's face spoke of other things.

"Would you want to know who your mother saw?" His easy smile turned into a frown as John tried to remember the woman who bore him for nine months and raised him for five years. It was difficult, he didn't remember much other than that she was warm and smelled of vanilla. Apparently she had brown hair as well, though he remembered her smile more than anything. "She saw her father."

"How do you know? You've told me that you can't see yourself as humans see you." Why was death even a topic of conversation now?

"I spoke with Death of course. I have to whenever I deliver a soul."

"...Bro am I going to die?" There, now maybe John could get some answers! "This entire night you've been depressed and talking about death and... Am I going to die soon?" The look of horror on Bro's face wasn't what John was expecting.

"If I have anything to say about this, John Egbert." Bro sat up, taking his cheek out of John's hand. "You will not die for a very long time."

"Say about what?" Many things could be said about John Egbert, that he is stupid is not one of them.

Bro was silent a bit longer, staring at John with a torn expression. 

Out of everything John was expecting, everything, even the far idea that Bro was lying, had nothing against the ball that came so far out of left feild it was hit from the right side. 

Surprisingly warm lips pushed against his and John's heart seemed to flutter with this sudden development. "I apologize if I surprised you, John." Bro murmured as he pulled back. Then swiftly pulled back in so John could return the kiss. "Yeah but I'm not..." He whispered against the Immortal's lips.

Bro moved slightly to push John back against the island, thankfully bolted to the floor, and moved his arms around the him to lift him up. "Oh, Bro, you're so strong..." John cooed with a smirk.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet, kid." John always found it hilarious when Bro would imitate a southern accent. "...The God of the Wind of this universe wants to end his existence."

Wow now that's a bomb to drop and things were just getting good too! "So...what does that mean?" Hopefully Bro wouldn't be able to feel the vague beginnings of a boner John was sporting.

"It means either we get someone to replace him or the winds will go into chaos."

"No, I meant, how could an Immortal... Die?" John's body was very torn. On one hand, being held against a hot bod. On the other, talks of death.

"Obliterating the mind. The body is inconsequential, death is only when you destroy the mind."

"So.. His mind would be destroyed. By who?"

"Death, of course." So that's why he was talking about death earlier. "I'm going to speak to him soon about this. Good bye, John." A chaste kiss to the forehead, being placed back onto his stool and that video John had put on what seemed like hours ago started playing and just what felt like seconds later a sharp beeping sound came from behind him signaling his lasagna was done. John's pocket of Time was gone, and so was Bro.


	6. Chapter 6

Death is easy to find. He doesn't exactly make himself difficult to locate for Bro; in a matter of seconds of their meeting Bro conveyed that he wanted to have a talk with him. They popped back into the human realm, Death appeared, as he had for some time, as a skinny boy with platinum blond hair and shades, "Could you ever take a form that isn't so young?" 

"I see how it is." His essence brought forth feelings of finality while some semblance of hope for new beginnings. "You finally come to see me for something other than work and the first thing we chat about is my form, I know I'm hot shit that's not news to me but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't take the time away from your John just to chat so come on lets get some business done, shoot the shit. Don't leave me barkin' up the wrong tree that ain't what I'm here for I'm sure you have other stuff you gotta be doin', you're a busy man after all."

Bro remembers why he doesn't like to talk to death more than he has to.

"Why the silence, you came all this way for somethin', am I right?"

"It's about another immortal."

"Oh really now has some unlucky sap fallen for you again come on, spill all the juicy secrets, tell Death all about it I'll paint your toenails while my hair sets from a perm. Shit lets be prepubescent teenage girls, might as well be with all this gossip going around."

Bro sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Death I need you to be serious, what's got you upset?"

"Nah nah it's nothing, just being me."

"...Sure." Sometimes there is no dealing with this one. "Its the human worlds' deity of Wind." Death let out a single breath of laughter.

"Which one? Those humans have more gods for nature than they do people. Swear, can't turn around in that realm without tripping over them."

"One of the really old ones. I didn't ask."

"But shouldn't you know? You are Time, after all. You could look ahead and see that he's doing whatever it is that brought you here since day one, and even then you haven't figured out which one he is?"

"Does it matter? He wants to cease to exist."

"That explains a lot."

"...Is that all?" For once Death wasn't going on a rambling spree and he couldn't help but bite and figure out why.

"Is that all what?"

"Normally I can't get you to shut up and now you're being concise?"

"Time, a god ceasing to exist is a serious matter. I'm offended at your assumption that I would try to play it off with jokes and laughter. Downright offended." He folded his arms. "So offended I might not help, it might not be that God's Time, after all." A smirk came to Death's lips and he knew that Death was joking around.

"Death."

"Yeah yeah, only you get to make Time jokes. Whatever, lets get crackalackin at this." How he hated it when Death spoke like that. It made him think of horrible jokes he would see on the internet should he ever hover behind some adult. Something about cloacas, it was just weird.

Humans are weird.

"Lets... Just go chat up this god. We can figure out all that needs to happen there." Death nodded and seconds later the pair of them popped out of existance and crossed over to the God of Wind in question.

"I've been expecting the pair of you."

"Zephyrus." Death nodded in greeting to him, for once showing something similar to his true essence. "A god damn pleasure to meet with you. Shame about why we're finally getting some chatter on between us, you were always my favorite of the Venti."

"I was many peoples favorite. Bringer of spring and summer breezes, how could one not?"

"And yet with all that you want to give that up? Toss in the towel as the humans say?"

"No one believes."

Death rolled his eyes at the gods' melodramatic words. "That's bullshit and you know it. If no one believed you wouldn't even be in this mess. So what is it you actually want."

"To not exist."

"Damn that's morbid." Death folded his arms over his chest, looking down with a thoughtful expression on his face. Zephyrus and Bro simply looked at each other with the same 'Wait what did he say' look.

"...I know there's something the pair of us can do, right?" Bro broke the silence first, bringing Death back from where ever he was inside his head.

"Of course, with us on the job nothing can go wrong. Shit only be going right with us on this don't you worry Zeph." He clapped a hand on his shoulder. "There is a way this can go down."

"...But it is as you said," Zephyrus interrupted. "People believe in me still, so I will exist."

"Ah yes, that whole believing thing. What a damn hassle, you feel me? People being so insensitive and believing in the gods they think control their very existence. Such a pain, sometimes."

"...I-I suppose I do...?" Zephyrus guessed, Bro could tell he never really had any leangthy conversation with Death before now.

"But, I know a way around that as well!" Death's bright smile was contagious enough to drag one out of Zeph as well. "We'll tag you out with some one else, let you score your hole in one and then we send you to the bench so some one else can have the limelight on the court!"

"Some one else?" 

"Yes, didn't you hear me the first time? Guess that makes sense, you are a god of Wind after all. Wind is so fickle man it could go one for ever without even stopping, makes no time for no one but at the same time drags on and on. Its so helpful too like for real-"

"Death, please," Bro felt that there was no need for Death to go on one of his rambles.

"Right, right. Well what would happen is we'd finish you, and go grab a new one from the human world's freshly dead!"

"It's that simple?"

"Sort of. Killing a god is no easy task even for me. But it can be done. Don't worry we'll set you up." Death winked to Zephyrus and popped out of existence.

"Yes, Death might be... eccentric some times, but he does mean what he says." Bro nodded to the god. "We will take care of this." He popped out as well, and came back to existence beside Death once more. "Did you have some one in mind for that replacement?"

"What about that blip of yours. John, right?" If Bro breathed his breath would have paused.

"John will not die."

"Time, Bro." He said the nickname John used with a smile, "Think about it, John would die anyway. He's mortal after all. This way he'd-"

"He would die sooner."

"Rude, let me finish." Death huffed and stepped in front of Bro. "This way he would die sooner, yes. But he'd be made immortal. Living off believers like Zephyrus does now."

"...Why John." Why his blip. 

"John just works out, you could explain this whole thing to him anyway and because he grew up with you he’d understand all this shit and what it means to be a god better than the next guy you went and collected who’d just be like ‘oh sweet man I'm gonna be a god how fuckin' cool is that I can do all this kinda stuff and what responsibilities I got god powers I'm gonna fuck so much shit up like I hate Jack Russel terriers I'm just gonna make them not exist’ and suddenly dog owners all over the world will watch their precious yappie jumping dogs just poof in the middle of a bounce or as they're giving birth and they’ll be like ‘god dammit now I have to clean all this shit up and I don't even have the cute puppies to make up for all this crap and whatever the fuck my dog was doing on this towel all I have is this dirty fucking towel what the fuck’ and that guy will just laugh and laugh and we’d have a god on our hands that was power hungry.” Death paused in his rant to make sure Bro was following him with a little nod of his head.

Bro was suddenly grateful he stopped Death's ramble to Zephyrus earlier. Zeph has no idea how lucky he was. This was, however, a serious matter. He should at least tell John about this. Hopefully he won't ask about what Death said the solution was.


	7. Chapter 7

Another day in the human realm passed, dozens of souls were sent off to their respective after lives or whatever it was they desired before Time heard from Death again. "So do you think you'll be able to talk to him about this?" The sudden voice would have surprised anybody else; all Time did was turn around to nod in acknowledgement of Death's appearance.

 "Now was that a nod that said 'Yeah I'll get my panties from their wad up my butt, unknot them, throw them in the wash, and talk to John' or a 'Yo dude wassup' to which I'd say 'Not much just finished seeing off another soul, yo we gotta figure out how to go about this Zephyrus thing it’s just not gonna go away, you know' and you'd say 'Yeah I know but I'm being a pussy and can't even tell the one human who actually understands this crap better than any other human out there about it because he's the best fit for this new position opening up and I don't want him to die even if it means he'd be immortal'."

 "Did anybody ever tell you you talk too much."

 "Yes, you make a point to tell me so near about every time we chat."

"Good."

"That don't answer my question, though."

"As Death one would think you'd care at least a little bit about a person's death."

"I just care about getting them to their after lives, caring about what happens between a birth and death is your job."

"True enough."

"...So are you going to talk to him or not. Because I will."

"You'd show yourself just for this?"

"Since you won't and it should be your job to inform people that they are dead or going to be dead, yes. I would." Death sighed and clapped a hand on Time's shoulder. "Time, you got connected to a human. You of all people understand just how fast their life is to an immortal. You could sneeze and they'd be dead by the time you finished."

"I understand, Death." Why was it so difficult to talk to John about this? "I just... Don't want John to die sooner than he has to."

"...Time you've known when his death would happen from the moment he was born." Death lowered his hand from Time's shoulder with a sigh. "Or have you just tried to ignore it."

Time's silence was all Death needed to hear. "Right, I'll talk to him."

"...Thank you." The words fell on Time's own ears, Death had left seconds before to the human realm.

 

Middle of the day, a surprisingly warm day for Washington, John had been out for a few hours taking care of a few errands and doing a grocery run for the next week. Another stupid man in front of him yelling at the cashier about how he can't make this return on something because he doesn't have the receipt or that it's too late to return it and he just wishes this man would hurry up. "Sir," John tapped the man on the shoulder and jerked back as the man whirled around to glare at him.

"What do you want, can't you see I'm in the middle of something?"

"I can see that, I just wanted to point out that it's not really her fault that she can't make the return. You didn't get back here in time to return the product."

"I don't rightly care, she can make this return."

"Sir, please, it's not her fault, you're taking your frustration out on her for no reason other than she's there and it's the stores' policies you're angry at."

"It's not a problem sir." The cashier spoke up, having left somewhere in the middle of it to get her manager who then took over the man's return. The cashier moved to a different station to wave John over to check him out. He placed a printer cable along with a power strip on the counter, grabbed up a pack of gum to throw into the mix and pretended he couldn't hear the man next to him try to get angry at the manager who eventually had to call out security to get him out of the store. "This happen often?" John joked to the woman.

"Sometimes, especially this time of year." She chuckled and nodded to her manager who left to go back into his office. "I was about to grab the manager anyway, you didn't have to step in like you did."

"Oh it was no problem," John flicked his eyes down to catch the name on her tag. "Angelina." He chuckled and pulled a well worn wallet with the engraving J.E. on the side and pulled out a 20 dollar bill. They chatted a bit more about mundane things as she counted out his change and rang up his receipt. He grabbed up his bag and left, wishing her a pleasant afternoon and she returned the sentiment.

He was in the elevator and it stopped, the lights went out, and his breath came out in a fog. John shivered and began rubbing his arms for circulation, darn this warm weather and his sensibility to not want to bring a jacket. "Strange weather huh." a voice drawled from beside him. John nearly jumped out of his skin, he'd gotten on this elevator alone, and turned to look at where the voice was supposed to have come from.

"Even stranger that it's happening inside an elevator of all places." He turned his head, he had these aviator shades on so John couldn't see his eyes, to face him. "Talk and walk with me." The elevator doors opened to the floor John was parked at, he hadn't even felt the elevator move, and he walked out with John trailing after him. "So you're Time's new friend, eh? I dunno what I expected but maybe... Someone more talkative?"

"Who- Who are you? Who's Time? Bro? Did Bro send you?"

"Woah there little dawgy." He chuckled and held his hands up. "Don't start up 20 questions yet we haven't even had the pleasure of introducing ourselves." In the light he was pale. Too pale, his skin looked pure white. Hair to match, as well. The only color on his body was his black pants, which only made him appear even paler, and a splash of red on his shirt. "Some call me The Only Truth, others call me The End. Any guess? We can play 20 questions if you really want, since you seem to like that game."

"You..." John frowned and stopped in the middle of the road.

"Be careful there, friend." He nodded to John's current standing point. "People would think you're flirting with me."

"...Death?"

"And we have a winner! Joannie show the man what he's won!"

"But... But time hasn't stopped, how am I seeing you?"

"Because I can exist outside of those time bubbles our friend enjoys setting up for the pair of you." He nodded towards John's car. "It's a perk of being the eternal bearer of Bad News. Because for real, who ever invites Death to dinner anymore. Only people who are about to die due to whatever reason that's finally cooked their goose." He shook his head as John continued to stare at him. "You gonna get in the car so we can get out of here? Because I don't know about you but I don't find a parking garage to be the most romantic place to have a conversation like the kind we're gonna have."

"What is it you want to talk about?"

"Ah, ah, ah. Thems spoilers." He grinned and put his finger to his temple and swung it down to point to his chest. "Get in the car and take us home, all will be made clear."

"I'm... I'm not going to die, am I? Is that why you're here?"

"Well... You're going to find out anyway. No, you aren't going to die. Not yet anyway. That's why I'm actually talking to you." He shrugged and gestured to John to get him over to the car. "Now let’s get to your bachelor pad, I'm dying to see it." Death grinned at his own choice of words and vanished for a split second to reappear inside the car. John sighed and shakily opened up the back seat to put his bag in and then he sat up front. Moments later they were outside on the road back to John's home. "So... I'm not going to die?"

"Well of course you are, Johnny Boy, that's what happens when you're mortal."

"But like, not on the way home?"

"No, it's like I said earlier. Not yet. Your time comes, as does everyone's. Just not yet." He reached over to pat John's hand on the stick shift. They were quiet the rest of the way; Well John was, Death jabbered on about redundant things like birds and references to crows laughing as he told John how a group of them together was called a murder and how funny he found it. They pulled into John's driveway and Death vanished once more to appear just outside his house with a smirk of... something.

"Come on, Johnny-cake." He grinned. "We have important grown-up stuff to discuss." He waved at one of the neighbors getting their mail, the neighbor simply staring at him as she slowly pulled the envelopes from the mailbox. "It's like people've never seen a dude before." Death muttered as John unlocked the door.

"Well maybe you appeared different to her?"

"Of course I do, I appear different to everyone. To some I'm a long dead relative, sometimes their mother, other times a pet, more often than not I'm some skeleton in this huge shadowy robe with a scythe of all things." He shook his head.

"Damn unclassy that is."

"What would you prefer then?"

"Good old fashioned sword. Can get right up to someone and do the damage."

"You could do that with a scythe too though?"

"Yeah but see I prefer one-handed weapons, a scythe is a two-handed weapon and it's just..." He shook his head. "Nah I'm not that fond of them."

"Huh..." John slowly put his bag on the counter to be unpacked... Whenever who really cared. "So... Why are you here?"

"Ah, and there's the meat of the situation." Death clapped his hands together and took a seat on one of his island chairs. "See, I'm sure Time's told you-" He trailed off, seeing if John would fill in the rest of the sentence. At his silence death flattened his mouth in a line and continued. "We have a god who is wanting to cease. Be wiped from existence, say his sweet goodbyes to his love in front of a train and board it at the last second watching that love chase after him only to stop at the edge of the platform and wave to his retreating form and just as the love leaves the building a huge explosion goes off behind them and they turn around and just _know_ that their own love died on that train."

"Uh...?"

"We have a god who's wanting to die, but seeing as how he's still believed in all that would do is bring him back good as new."

"But why does he..?"

"Kid, immortality ain't all it's cracked up to be, seeing so many civilizations rise and fall they all blend together and nothing really stands out anymore, the people I've known have been born, lived, and died in the time it took me to blink."

"Oh..."

"That's just how it goes, some get bored and go into what we call hibernation, others exist on the fringes of space-time. There because people believe in them but not enough to give them any real form, and some just cease all together as their religion dies or they get forgotten to time."

John frowned as he tried to take all this in, even though most of it was going over his head. "The metaphysics lesson is great and all, but what does that have to do with me?"

"Oh see there's a smart kid under all that." He gestured to John up and down. "Well. There is a way a god still being believed in can die. That's if someone replaces him."

"And... You want me to replace him?"

"Bingo, you've won again, that's two-for-two let’s see if we can't keep up this winning streak!"

"But, why me?"

"Because you actually grew up with this stuff. You understand it better than most anyone out there could even dream of. Best of all Time's taken a shine to you, I'd hate to have to see you die and him having to lead you to me to wherever it is you think you'd go when you die."

"So... What, I'd die and replace him and he just, what, vanishes?"

"Yeah pretty much."

"Why isn't Bro telling me this?"

"You mean Time, yeah? Well he's got a soft spot for you, he doesn't exactly like thinking of you dying after all. The only real company he's had outside of immortals in a damn long time, I don't think he'd like to lose you."

"But if I'm immortal than I can be around for forever?"

"If people still believe in you." John blinked in slight confusion.

"Johnny-cake, if people stop believing in you, poof, you're gone. I'd stick around for forever, as would Time, we're two sides of the same coin, we exist because nothing is permanent. Not even stone is permanent. Not to mention you'd actually physically change as well. Maybe even mentally a bit. Who knows what'd even happen, we're like those pioneers, boldly going where no man has gone before and all that jazz."

"You're quoting the wrong sort of... You know what, never mind. But, explain to me about this... changing?"

"Oh yeah, the people that believe in you have a basic idea of what you'd look like, so you'd physically change to match what they picture you to look like, more or less." Death shrugged and turned to face John again.

John paused for a moment, thinking this through. "Wow this is a lot of information... And you want me to die to do this?"

"That's the plan, yeah."

"Well... How do I die? If Bro knows that this is how I die then I might as well right?"

"...He doesn't like to reveal the future to mortals. For obvious reasons."

"Obvious?"

"You ever heard of someone who knew what was going to happen, and so did everything in their power to either make it happen or prevent it?"

"Yeah, it's a common trope in sci-fi."

"Then you should know that it more often than not backfires and the thing they wanted to have happen didn't, or the thing they were trying to prevent happened. A really famous thing with this is that Oedipus guy. Man you think you have problems." Death chuckled and shook his head. "But nah, I understand this is a lot of information coming at you really, fast, I do." He slid off the chair and landed without a sound in the tile. "So I'll give you a bit of time-" a chuckle "to think it over, mull through in your brain. After everything Time's told me you've got plenty of them." He reached up to pat John on the cheek. "Not too long though, this dude is serious about wanting to kick the bucket." And just as soon as Death had appeared, he left.

 

And appeared before Time with arms outstretched and face that all but screamed "There, was that so hard?" Time sighed and turned away from him. "Oh, Time, you know you can't turn your back on Death." He laughed as he moved around to face Time again. "It's done, I told him about it, you should be thanking me, after all. He did ask why you weren't the one telling him." He quirked a brow up to the other in a questioning way.

"You know I couldn't."

"Yeah yeah, you actually care for that little mortal." Death shook his head. "Well he's got time to think on his answer, expect one soon."

"Yeah." Time trailed off, not noticing when Death had left his presence.


End file.
